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Candidates, voters should embrace campaign rebate program

Tallahassee’s new campaign rebate program is a major victory for voters and city commission candidates alike.

Beginning this year, every Tallahassee voter who donates to a city commission candidate will be eligible to receive up to $25 of their contribution back, giving regular people more voice in Tallahassee elections and government. The program was overwhelmingly voted into existence in 2014 by more than two-thirds of Tallahassee voters.

City commission candidate Gloria Pugh expressed the rationale for the rebate program well in a Jan. 24 Tallahassee Democrat article. “People are feeling disconnected from City Hall,” she said. “This could be a way for people to be more involved in the process, and that’s a great thing.”

Running for office costs money, and raising that money takes time. Most city commission candidates would prefer to spend their limited hours talking with Tallahassee voters about important issues, from the safety of our neighborhoods to how to attract better jobs to the city. Instead, candidates must slog from one fundraiser to another, hobnobbing with special interests, often those from outside the city. Even after they get elected, candidates remain dependent on their big-money donors, so they often prioritize what those donors want instead of what’s best for Tallahassee.

Under the rebate program, every voter has an incentive to be a donor – meaning local candidates can finally afford to prioritize their constituents and depend on their funds alone to run a competitive campaign. Goodbye, big money fundraisers; hello, town hall meetings. Wealthy donor influence is diluted when there are more small dollar donations from parents, seniors and other hard working voters.

The rebate program will also bring new faces into Tallahassee politics. Too many talented people forgo public service because they refuse to play the big-money game. By leveraging the rebate program, more diverse candidates with fresh ideas will be able to run for office – and win.

Despite these clear benefits, some city candidates have expressed concern over the mechanics of how the new rebate program will work. The Tallahassee Ethics Board should be open to ideas from candidates for how to make the program more efficient and effective when they meet on Feb. 16. Allowing candidates to provide electronic receipts to donors, as recommended by candidate Rick Minor, is a constructive idea that should be considered.

We understand that change can be hard, especially in the midst of a heated political season. But we urge all candidates for city office to remember why voters created the rebate program in the first place: to give regular Tallahassee voters more voice in local government. Surely that is a goal we can all get behind.

Marilynn Wills is co-chair of Citizens for Ethics Reform and chair of the board of Integrity Florida.